UNESCO IN THE WORLD — UNESCO's PARTNERS

THE PRIVATE SECTOR UNESCO has a long tradition of co-operation with private foundations. The Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation were both instrumental in creating IIEP and setting up the International Working Group on Education. Many other foundations collaborate with UNESCO, especially on issues of early childhood education, environmental education, and human rights education. UNESCO has recently also committed itself to establishing relationships with commercial enterprises prepared to fund development projects in Member States. This, for instance, is how it came about that Gateway Educational Products, an American company, financed an international symposium on family literacy and how IBM collaborates in activities linked to the educational application of new information and communication technologies.

Example of co-operation with the private sector Information highways in the service of education UNESCO's Internet Web for education is open to NGOs; it contains to date the equivalent of around 3 Gigabytes of data. It has been set up with the support of IBM and the University of Nebraska.

THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS UNESCO is part of the United Nations System, sharing its ideals and its general goals. It maintains co-operative relationships of various kinds with the other specialized agencies, funds and programmes. Dialogue and co-ordination are ensured within the system through regular meetings of the heads of these agencies. UNESCO is also involved in humanitarian aid operations carried out under the aegis of the United Nations and is associated with the action of the United Nations system as a whole in areas regarded by the international community as requiring priority attention. The Organization is a key stakeholder in everything which concerns education and in particular basic education following the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990); it has been recognized as the leader in all educational activities comprised within the United Nations Priority Africa Programme (1996); it has been designated as the agency responsible for educational activities under Agenda 21, the programme adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janiero; it has always participated in the implementation of programmes proposed by world conferences on women, the fourth of which was held recently in Beijing (China, 1995). One of the six agencies in the system participating in the United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), UNESCO is developing its worldwide information and educational activities to help prevent the spread of this epidemic. Co-operation with funding agencies within the United Nations system and with bilateral development aid agencies is presented within the framework of operational action. UNESCO also continues to consult and co-operate with some 140 intergovernmental, interregional, regional and sub-regional organizations outside the United Nations system. With them, UNESCO carries out joint projects or holds consultations on questions of mutual interest and exchanges information and documentation.

	UNESCO MEMBER STATES
	NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS CO-OPERATING WITH UNESCO IN EDUCATION